


Under the Strawberry Tree

by Mersheeple



Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [39]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Funeral, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25507621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple
Summary: It was a day of too many losses. She went alone to his funeral...
Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [39]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805746
Comments: 13
Kudos: 39
Collections: Severus Snape Lives!





	Under the Strawberry Tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Viridiantly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viridiantly/gifts).



> STRAWBERRY TREES ARE REAL!!! It's called Arbutus Unedo...
> 
> Anyway, this is a little something that came into my head and then wouldn't leave! AND I got both prompts in...mwahahahahaha!!!

She didn’t really want to be in the open air on a rainy day like today but she didn’t have a choice. She was the representative of the Golden Trio after all. She had volunteered for this position. There were so many funerals daily that they had to pick and choose which ones they each went to. Today Remus and Tonks were being laid to rest together. Harry was going to that funeral as their representative. Ron was going to the funeral of Colin Creevey, another of the casualties of War that was cut down far too young.

So Hermione was here, in a bleak little Manchester adjacent village, dressed all in black and hoping that she would not be late to the funeral of a friendless, lonely man that she respected more than she probably should, though she was aware of the circumstances of his life, perhaps more so than he would have liked. With a sigh she headed to the church where the service was to be held.

The church was silent, the coffin waiting outside in the hearse and Hermione’s heart broke for him. He would not have cared, she was sure, but attending a church funeral and finding that no one had come was horrible. She turned to the vicar, a dour looking man whom she had dealt with briefly on the telephone and requested that the funeral should be skipped as she was the only attendee. The vicar looked grateful that he would not have to administer a full service to a crowd of one and preceded her to the freshly dug grave.

She stood in silence as he administered the bare minimum of service to the coffin, watching it be lowered by the pall bearers, silent sentinels who worked for the funeral parlour. Even knowing the truth about Severus Snape had not meant that anyone was willing to carry his casket. A single tear ran down her face as she tossed a handful of earth into the grave after him, the single flower in her head following after it and landing haphazardly on the coffin. She whispered a spell that no one would notice and smiled sadly, knowing that her spell would mean that no one from their world could vandalise the grave site.

She had left the graveyard trying to keep it all together. Her heart hurt for the man she had seen buried. His life had been thankless, his death had been the greatest loss of the War. At least, that’s what she had thought when she had decided to go to the funeral.

Hermione hoped that she would be able to complete her task for the day, heading towards a place she had never been but knowing with absolute certainty that she was going in the right direction. She rounded a corner and noticed a shimmering form a little way in front of her. She walked towards it, drawn like a moth to a flame. The shimmer floated over her, enfolding her, encapsulating her and she stood still, waiting until his wards decided that she was welcome. She could tell from the feel of the magic that it was his. A voice began to whisper to her and she shivered as she recognised it, as impossible as it truly was.

_You know I didn’t want to have to haunt you, but what a ghostly scene…_

She turned around looking for him and could almost feel him roll his eyes as she headed towards the house, knowing she was alone but not quite feeling it. She raised her hand to push on the door and found no resistance, as if his wards had proclaimed her safe. She entered the house and looked around the slightly dusty abode. To her left was a small room that she assumed from the view was a library cum lounge cum dining room. In front of her was a room she could plainly see was a kitchen with a strange small room attached which appeared to be a bathroom. It looked a little mismatched, as if it had been built into an extension. She walked into the kitchen and cast a few spells, mostly for cleaning and revealing trace magics.

All traces of her Professor’s magic seemed to have vanished the moment she cast her first spell and she sighed sadly. A revealing spell showed her a piece of parchment and she sat down to read for a moment.

_**Miss Granger,  
I am assuming that if you are reading this letter, I am dead. If not, I shall assume I am sitting in front of you having a nice cup of tea and a biscuit. Preferably a chocolate hobnob if I have the choice. Or a Bourbon biscuit if, by some strange twist of fate, it is the Hobnobs that are extinct and not yours truly.  
Anything at all that is of any use to you in this house, is yours. I shall assume you will be taking the books and, possibly, the laboratory equipment in the upstairs bedroom.  
Miss Granger, know that it has been my pleasure to teach you and my privilege to watch you become the person you are today.  
Should the coffin that you have buried be, by some miracle, empty, know that I have my ways and, should you wish to find me, I can be found, always, under the Strawberry Tree. You will find me there, Hermione, should you have need of anything.  
It is, therefore, with grief that I must bid you adieu for, I know, you will never need me. Live your life, be loved, be happy, be safe. Above all, be free.** _

It was unsigned but she would have recognised the writing anywhere. She waited only another moment to re-read what he had said. If she _needed_ him? If she needed him… She knew that, in her heart, she would always need a man like him to make her stronger, to walk by her side, to help her see the point in continuing on. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was going but she held the letter to her chest and, thinking only about Severus Snape and the fact that she needed him to hold her, just once, smelling of herbs and parchment again, she Disapparated.

The sun over the trees was bright and beautiful and she saw the reddish fruits above her and laughed. A second laugh, one she had never heard before, joined hers.

“Hello Miss Granger.”


End file.
